Our book, “Carlos Goes to School", received great results. Almost all of the survey participants agreed that the animal coaches enhanced the story. Most, also, agreed that students could grasp new words from the text and pictures. The one participant that disagreed did not complete the “tell us why” section of the survey. Everyone agreed that the storyline was easy for students to follow. The flashcards were a hit as well, with everyone agreeing the flashcards added educational value. The overwhelming response (67%) to the “what would you consider the most useful part of the book” was the story being read aloud.Back to top
Interview 1:
-Interview with a K/1st grade regular education teacher. She had used the story with a K/1st grade class of 19 students .
Question 1: What do you consider the strength for the story “Carlos Goes to School” and why?
-The strength would have to be the text being read to the students and the fact it can be replayed. The students wanted to hear the page over and over. The text being read helped the students grasp new words as I pointed them out during the reading. We even discussed some of the words at the end of the reading.
Question 2: Which animal coach was most effective?
-For my class it was the coach Friendly because wehave been having some “friendship” issues lately. Last week we had even had the exact some taking of toys issue from the story. We were able to discuss how the characters in the story handled their problems.
Question 3: How were you able to utilize the flashcards?
-We used the flashcards for I spy in the classroom. The students were to look for the same item on the flashcard and raise their hands when they had found it. Then we discussed if our item was exactly the same or different.
Question 4: If you could change anything about the story, what would it be?
-I wouldn’t change anything! Back to top
Interview 2:
-Interview with an ESOL teacher that works with K/1 students in small groups. She used the story with a small group of 5 ESOL students.
Question 1: What do you consider the strength for the story “Carlos Goes to School” and why?
-The variety of features included. There were many options to choose from to help my students. I could use the flashcards, the text, animal coaches, etc. I have created several lessons to use with the story already.
Question 2: Which animal coach was most effective?
-Since I work with ESOL students, the translation was wonderful. I could use the translation to compare to the English words on the page. I liked that some of the words were already translated on the page.
Question 3: How were you able to utilize the flashcards?
-We used the flashcards to practice English pronuncation of the words. Then we went back through the story and looked for each of the item. I only used the English word, so they had to remember what the picture of that word looked like. They did a great job.
Question 4: If you could change anything about the story, what would it be?
-Nothing needs to be changed. Back to top
Classroom Observation:
I observed a K/1 inclusion class as they reviewed our book, “Carlos Goes to School”. The class consists of 3 special education students, 4 ESOL students, 2 special needs (medical) students, and 5 regular education students for a total of 14. The students reviewed the story during their morning circle time. The story was on the SMARTBoard, so some students were even able to interact with the story. As the story came up, one student seemed super excited. His excitement stemed from the fact that his name was Carlos, so he thought the book was about him. The students enjoyed listening to the story and the additional thoughts by the animal coaches. The teacher clicked on the animal coach, Marcy, and had the helper student find the item in the picture. She also played the animal coach, Pedro, who translated each page. The students were engaged and couldn’t wait for the next page. They caught on to Marcy’s item being marked and would look for the text on the picture. At the end of the story, the teacher reviewed each of the pictures. The students were able to identify all of the pictures, even though they had missed two during the story (cubbies and tricycles-called them bikes). The teacher allowed the story to be one of the centers during center time. I stayed and observed that as well. The students were paired SPED to regular ed or ESOL to regular ed. (There were only two rotations for this center time.) The pairs were interesting. The SPED student had a little trouble with some of the words in the story. The regular ed student would replay the story and show him the word he missed. He was able to grasp several of the words. The ESOL student was the leader in the other group. She was replaying the translation and showing the regular ed student what words were what in the story line. These were some effects that were not expected. Overall, the story was engaging and helped the students grasp vocabulary in English and Spanish. Back to top
Below are the three survey options that we chose to use for our Formative Evaluation. We designed the questions for these audiences: Special Education teachers, ESOL teachers, and Regular Education teachers. The link to the results is under each survey. There is also a summary of all of the results after the surveys. The Summative Evaluation results consists of two interviews (Interview 1 & Interview 2) and a classroom observation.
Copy of Special Education survey:
Click Here For Special Education Survey ResultsBack to top
Copy of ESOL survey:
Click Here For ESOL Survey ResultsBack to top
Copy of Regular Ed Survey:
Click Here For Regular Ed Survey ResultsBack to top
Summary of Survey Results:
Our book, “Carlos Goes to School", received great results. Almost all of the survey participants agreed that the animal coaches enhanced the story. Most, also, agreed that students could grasp new words from the text and pictures. The one participant that disagreed did not complete the “tell us why” section of the survey. Everyone agreed that the storyline was easy for students to follow. The flashcards were a hit as well, with everyone agreeing the flashcards added educational value. The overwhelming response (67%) to the “what would you consider the most useful part of the book” was the story being read aloud.Back to topInterview 1:
-Interview with a K/1st grade regular education teacher. She had used the story with a K/1st grade class of 19 students .Question 1: What do you consider the strength for the story “Carlos Goes to School” and why?
-The strength would have to be the text being read to the students and the fact it can be replayed. The students wanted to hear the page over and over. The text being read helped the students grasp new words as I pointed them out during the reading. We even discussed some of the words at the end of the reading.
Question 2: Which animal coach was most effective?
-For my class it was the coach Friendly because wehave been having some “friendship” issues lately. Last week we had even had the exact some taking of toys issue from the story. We were able to discuss how the characters in the story handled their problems.
Question 3: How were you able to utilize the flashcards?
-We used the flashcards for I spy in the classroom. The students were to look for the same item on the flashcard and raise their hands when they had found it. Then we discussed if our item was exactly the same or different.
Question 4: If you could change anything about the story, what would it be?
-I wouldn’t change anything!
Back to top
Interview 2:
-Interview with an ESOL teacher that works with K/1 students in small groups. She used the story with a small group of 5 ESOL students.Question 1: What do you consider the strength for the story “Carlos Goes to School” and why?
-The variety of features included. There were many options to choose from to help my students. I could use the flashcards, the text, animal coaches, etc. I have created several lessons to use with the story already.
Question 2: Which animal coach was most effective?
-Since I work with ESOL students, the translation was wonderful. I could use the translation to compare to the English words on the page. I liked that some of the words were already translated on the page.
Question 3: How were you able to utilize the flashcards?
-We used the flashcards to practice English pronuncation of the words. Then we went back through the story and looked for each of the item. I only used the English word, so they had to remember what the picture of that word looked like. They did a great job.
Question 4: If you could change anything about the story, what would it be?
-Nothing needs to be changed.
Back to top
Classroom Observation:
I observed a K/1 inclusion class as they reviewed our book, “Carlos Goes to School”. The class consists of 3 special education students, 4 ESOL students, 2 special needs (medical) students, and 5 regular education students for a total of 14. The students reviewed the story during their morning circle time. The story was on the SMARTBoard, so some students were even able to interact with the story. As the story came up, one student seemed super excited. His excitement stemed from the fact that his name was Carlos, so he thought the book was about him. The students enjoyed listening to the story and the additional thoughts by the animal coaches. The teacher clicked on the animal coach, Marcy, and had the helper student find the item in the picture. She also played the animal coach, Pedro, who translated each page. The students were engaged and couldn’t wait for the next page. They caught on to Marcy’s item being marked and would look for the text on the picture. At the end of the story, the teacher reviewed each of the pictures. The students were able to identify all of the pictures, even though they had missed two during the story (cubbies and tricycles-called them bikes). The teacher allowed the story to be one of the centers during center time. I stayed and observed that as well. The students were paired SPED to regular ed or ESOL to regular ed. (There were only two rotations for this center time.) The pairs were interesting. The SPED student had a little trouble with some of the words in the story. The regular ed student would replay the story and show him the word he missed. He was able to grasp several of the words. The ESOL student was the leader in the other group. She was replaying the translation and showing the regular ed student what words were what in the story line. These were some effects that were not expected. Overall, the story was engaging and helped the students grasp vocabulary in English and Spanish.Back to top